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Smoke Bombs

You can buy professionally made smoke bombs from fireworks vendors; they might even work better than homemade ones. But making them yourself is cheaper, can leave less of a trail, and involves you in the process, so you can manufacture them according to your needs.

You will need ( tools or supplies ):

Saltpeter—This can be difficult to find in person, but you can obtain it from mailorder services that do business over the internet. Make sure not to leave a paper trail to yourself, if security is an issue.

Sugar

Old cooking pot

Spoon

Stove

Bowls or ice cube tray

Cigarette lighter

Step

Mix two parts sugar to three parts saltpeter in a cooking pot. Heat this over a low flame, stirring constantly until it melts; this will take several minutes. Pour the mixture into an ice cube tray, or into bowls, depending on the size you want to make the smoke bombs. Allow the bombs to cool and harden, and remove them from your molds. Once dried, they may get sticky in warm, humid weather—they’re partly sugar, after all—but they will still work. To apply one, light it with a cigarette lighter; this may take up to fifteen seconds. We don’t recommend using matches to light them, as it is difficult to keep matches burning that long unless there is no wind. These smoke bombs burn like sparklers, rather than exploding suddenly. Once lit, they can be thrown without going out. A smoke bomb the size of an ice cube will burn for perhaps twenty seconds. We made one the size of a fist, and when we tested it outside we were sure the fire department was going to come. One source recommends embedding matchsticks in the bombs before they have dried, to aid in the lighting process; there are bound to be ways to arrange a delayed ignition, as well.